This Is What This Popular Ear Piercing Really Means

Chronic migraine pain is horrible. It’s almost ten times more painful than an average headache, and therefore migraine sufferers often have to take weeks out of work or school. They isolate themselves in a dark, quiet area and they try to nurse the throbbing pain away. This is not a joke, and it’s estimated that 37 million people in the U.S. alone suffer from migraines. Many of these patients are taking doctor prescribed strong painkillers to stop the never ending pain. But some people prefer a more holistic method because chemical medicine is not their preferred choice.

Holistic methods sometimes involve massage, acupuncture, aromatherapy, meditation, and other types of alternative medicine. Also, there is one much more fashionable method for lessening the pain of chronic migraines. We all know that the piercing is a popular fashion statement, but we were not aware that it also works as a holistic method for migraine relief. Most often this piercing is seen on the innermost cartilage fold of the ear.

Although it seems strange, alternative treatment can help with most of the painful symptoms of a chronic migraine. The piercing acts like acupuncture because it hits a particular pressure point in the ear meant to relieve pain.

According to the National Health Service (NHS), acupuncture works by stimulating nerves under the skin and in muscle tissue. The stimulation makes our body produce pain-relieving substances, such as endorphins. This group of hormones is likely responsible for any beneficial effects seen with acupuncture. Daith piercings work in a very similar way. The biggest difference is that the pricing is more permanent and some consider it a lot cuter.

After this discovery of the functional earring was made public, many people shared their piercing with praise on the social media. They are encouraging others who suffer from chronic migraines to follow the example. Nicole Bandes,a managing director from Arizona, is one of the hundreds who has seen a dramatic change in their life since getting their daith piercing.

“I’ve now had this (piercing) for over six months and can honestly admit that it has worked for me. I’ve seen a reduction in frequency and intensity of my migraines where nothing else seemed to help. My husband noticed it before I did (and that’s saying something). Maybe I just wasn’t willing to admit that it was actually working. Since getting it, I think I’ve had less than five migraines. Only one of those has actually made me fully non-functional for a day. I’ve dramatically reduced my use of drugs to deal with the migraines,” she wrote on Facebook.

Another fan, Natalie Thompson, wrote after the piercing the migraine pain she felt reduced from a 7 to a 3 on the pain chart. That alone is enough to improve your entire quality of life.

But the experts are not so optimistic. They say yes, but not for everyone, and not forever.

“There isn’t a lot of hard science behind the correlation between daith piercings and headache relief. Some people have found temporary relief with this method, but it certainly won’t work for everybody,” says migraine expert Dr. Thomas Cohn.